Royal Funeral, Chiang Mai, Thailand 1990

After all these years I finally put my hand in the box to dig out this old video. The date was 1/27/90 and I spotted a large funeral procession winding its way throught the streets of Chiang Mai. The parade included musicians, drummers, dancers, sedan chairs carrying monks and a tall, gilt cremation bier carried by maybe 50 bearers. When we at last arrived at the temple throngs of royals, guests and citizens paid final respects to the princess Tippawan Na Chiang Tung, whose body had been awaiting a year for an auspicious date to be cremated. A viewer of this clip messaged me to tell me the name of the deceased. The viewer was helped by a Wiki search in the Thai language.

The video contains funeral music and appropriate chants and prayers to spirit the princess to heaven.

This material was shot during a trek with Charles Gatewood, the photograper. For more information, contact me, Qwerk or search Charles Gatewood on Youtube.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Thailand
• Chiang Mai
• Royal
• royal funeral
• funeral
• cremation
• Thai princess
• 1990
• Charles Gatewood

[qwerk]

princess Tippawan Na Chiang Tung.

[trisulidevalai]

@lonelymysticist They wait for 1 year to pray and prepare for the funeral and also thay have to wait for a summer time to do the cremation.

[naamphrik]

Absolutely wonderful! I was there, but only took still shots. I remember it it so well, and now in 2012 it's great to see how CM streets looked 22 years ago.

[lonelymysticist]

could you tell me why they waited a whole year? maybe because of the stars or something?

[siamsweeds]

princess chiang mai